


Rey's Quest

by Akashne



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Africa by Toto, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, BB is Poe's daughter, Christmas Fluff, F/M, Meet-Cute, Rey is working as a Santa's Elf, The Writing Den, gift shopping, those damn porgs, twd
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-30
Updated: 2018-12-30
Packaged: 2019-09-30 15:05:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,492
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17226263
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Akashne/pseuds/Akashne
Summary: Rey thought buying presents would be easier when one worked in a shopping mall - and she couldn't been more wrong.Ben just put off his gift shopping for as long as he could.





	Rey's Quest

**Author's Note:**

  * For [SadBunn](https://archiveofourown.org/users/SadBunn/gifts).



> This fic is a part of [Reylo Writing Den](https://thereylowritingden.tumblr.com/)'s [Winter Fic Exchange](https://archiveofourown.org/collections/winterficexchange), written for RaDx's prompt:  
> "Rey's oddysey to find a gift for every friend."  
> I strayed a teeny-tiny little bit from it, but I hope you like it anyways. 
> 
> Thanks so much to both of my helpers, I'll put your names here after the reveal - you both did a magnificent job helping me (as usual) <3

Rey didn't think this through.

When she was offered a gig as one of Santa's elves in a shopping mall, she accepted it without a second thought - the additional money would be a great help when it came to buying presents (or surviving till the next paycheck afterwards).

But to buy presents, one had to have some free time while the shops were actually open. Unfortunately, her job started as the mall opened and ended when it closed. For the whole two weeks, she was stealing moments during her lunch breaks to run to the shops, buy one present at a time, then rush back to work.

Who needed lunch anyway?

So she bought silk pyjamas for Finn (in his signature orange, of course), a highly popular eyeshadow palette for Rose, a book about aircraft history for Poe (he'd been mentioning it since last Christmas at least once a month, so she took the hint). There was only one more gift on her list and it was the hardest one to get a hold of: a plushie porg for Poe's daughter, BB.

BB was as opinionated as any five-year-old: she liked Star Wars and she wanted to be a Rebellion pilot, just like her daddy. None of them had the heart to explain to her that Poe was not in the Rebellion - or Resistance for that matter - but in boring, old Airforce. Or that there were no Jedi.

And so BB demanded that Darth Vader (because Santa was for boring children) bring her a porg. They established that Rey would be responsible for delivering the plushie porg ( _Just, you know, not bigger than BB, please,_ Finn whispered).

The task should be fairly easy: there were three toy shops in the mall and porgs were everywhere, just as a toy designed to be desired by every child and half of the adults should be. As such, they were in high demand, even with constant restocking in the shops, Rey was always out of luck: either the shop had run out for the moment, or the crowds were just too big for her to wait in the queue and get back to Santa on time. She tried every day, growing more and more desperate each time.

Finally, on Christmas Eve, she managed to finish work an hour before the mall's closing time. The first shop was well stocked, but unfortunately, all the porgs were gone. She even managed to catch one of the assistants to ask them about the toys, but unfortunately they had none, even in the back - and he took his sweet time checking, probably happy for an excuse to hide in the back of the store.

She went to the second one, the closest to the entrance, which looked like a zombie apocalypse movie had just finished filming. Most of the shelves were empty, broken toys littering the carpet, and employees all sitting and staring at the last few customers with empty eyes. Rey backed out quickly after glancing at the empty porg shelf.

With only twenty minutes to closing time, she went to the last shop, hoping for at least a single toy she could buy. In her mind, she was cursing herself for not just ordering the blasted thing online or asking Finn or Rose to do it for her - she'd give them back the money. That's what she should have done, but she thought she'd manage, since she worked in a damn mall for goodness’ sake.

Walking as quickly as she could without breaking into a run, she entered the last toy store. There still were quite a lot of people, but the shop looked as close to normal as it could on Christmas Eve. With determination in her step, Rey walked to the porg section, filled with hope as she spied one last porg, standing vigil on the shelf. With exhausted relief, her focus narrowed to the single porg, beaming at her like the light at the end of the tunnel. Which is why she didn’t notice another person, also determined to claim the last damn bird, until they simultaneously grabbed it from the opposite sides.

***

It wasn’t that Ben hated Christmas.

He just disliked everything _around_ Christmas: the crowded shops, the irritating music, _“Last Christmas”_ playing everywhere and people whining about losing Whamageddon, the unbounded materialism, buying presents, Santas (and their “elves” in ridiculous costumes), desperate crowds, people acting as if they were preparing for the apocalypse, stuffing their fridges and pantries with more food than anyone really needed or wanted to eat. Which was why he always procrastinated buying presents until the last possible moment.

Of course it wasn’t wise, and more than once he had to change his plans for what to buy when the first (and second, AND third) option was unavailable, but on Christmas Eve, there was no putting it off any later. Not for the first time, he promised himself that next time he would just order everything online.

Alas, it was too late to do it this year, so about two hours before closing, he steeled himself and entered the mall. Just a glance into the first two toy shops made him move this particular venture to the end of his list. He bought a bottle of good Corellian whiskey for Dad, a silver brooch with striped flint (he hoped for additional points for originality) for Mother, expensive champagne for Phas, a watch for Hux (it was a running joke at this point, one that made Phasma giggle and her husband suffer in silence), and the only thing left on his list was the damn toy for their spawn. That shouldn’t be a problem, it was the most popular toy of the season, the shops were practically overflowing with little buggers.

With a pained expression, he entered the most normal looking toy store of the mall and slowly walked around, searching for the plushie. Phasma was very particular about what she wanted her child to get from the (reluctant) uncle, and he knew he’d rather not cross her, even if young Hope was only a year old and didn’t have any opinion on Star Wars… yet.

Finally, he found his way to the display stand in the middle of the shop, where the last plushie porg was standing like the last soldier on the battlefield. Relieved, he reached out to grab it when he saw another hand squeezing the toy from the other side. Startled, his eyes followed the hand and arm to see a… freaking Santa’s elf - complete with pointy ears, ridiculous hat, and his field of vision was suddenly filled with what seemed to be all the green in the world from her costume, only a shade darker than acid green, but nonetheless hurtful to the eyes.

Upon another look, the woman was simply stunning: wide open hazel eyes that captured him instantly, a cute nose and plush lips, her square face framed by lush brown locks (and despite that damn green hat with white fur, he was rapidly reconsidering his opinion on elves). She was quite tall, but still only reached his shoulder. The gorgeous elf was looking at him in shock, just as startled as he was.

***

The first thing she registered about the man on the other side of the porg was his height - she had to look up quite a ways to see his face, and oh, what a face it was. He was not typically handsome, for sure, with his big nose, deep black eyes, and a few beauty marks dotting his pale face, but there was still something intriguing about him. Her gaze stopped for a moment too long on his soft-looking, plump lips.

On instinct, Rey pulled the toy towards her, the movement promptly breaking the spell. The man frowned, looking at the toy and then back at her.

“I think we have a problem,” he said in a deep, smooth voice.

Rey swallowed, then sighed.

“We could go ask them if they have more in the back, but I highly doubt that. The other shops are already out of stock,” she explained.

He hummed in response, nodding his head thoughtfully.

“So… what now?” Rey asked.

“I don’t know. A coin toss?” The man proposed, shrugging his shoulders.

She grimaced.

“No, that’s a terrible idea. Listen, I’m sure you have a perfect excuse for late shopping, but I’ve been trying to get this for like two weeks, but I couldn’t find enough time in lunch breaks to make it through the crowds and queues, and as you can guess, I work from opening till closing. I know I should have just bought it online, but I really thought I could do this. And I am an aunt to a very opinionated five-year-old, who I really don’t want to disappoint, and I’m sorry, I’m rambling…” she finished lamely.

“No.”

“What?” she asked, taken aback.

The man sighed with a pained expression.

“No, I don’t have a good excuse. I just don’t like crowded stores, so I put this off for as long as I could.” He rolled his eyes. “And my friends’ girl is only one, so she probably wouldn’t mind getting something else. Her mother, though, is quite scary, and I’d rather not cross her.”

Rey watched him dumbly for a moment, blinking a few times.

“Oh,” was the only response she could come up with.

The man chuckled.

“So, this is my offer: I’ll give up this highly treasured and extremely valuable toy and in exchange, you’ll get a drink with me.”

Rey’s jaw almost hit the floor. That was literally the last thing she had expected in this situation.

“Whaaaaaat?”

He blushed.

“Listen. I definitely need a drink, and you also look like you could use one, since I’m guessing you spent the whole day surrounded by children. And well, if I give this up, I’ll either have to tell Phasma I fucked up or bullshit my way through convincing her that I’m giving her daughter a…” he stopped and looked around, finally reaching over to the nearest shelf for a different stuffed toy, “an Ewok, because the Original Trilogy was better anyway.” He grinned at Rey, who melted a little inside, seeing how his stern features changed by this wild smile. “Which, to be honest, is not very probable. So, if this is to be my last day on this Earth, I’d rather not spend it alone. What do you say?”

An uncontrollable giggle escaped Rey.

“Deal!”

They went to the registers, quickly paid for their purchases, then left the shop. Despite having shorter legs, Rey was at the front of their retreat, and Ben had to firmly stop himself from ogling her long, long legs clad in red and white striped tights, with the shortest skirt allowed for someone working with children. The sight made his mouth dry.

When they reached the mall entrance, he paused and looked at her outfit.

“Do you need to change, or something?”

She gave him a cheeky smile.

“Nah, I’ll do that at home. People are always really nice to me when I’m in costume,” she explained brightly. “Why, are you ashamed of going for a drink with someone in latex elf ears?”

Her voice was full of laughter, and if she told him it wasn’t a costume and she lived in Neverland, he would have absolutely believed her.

“N-no, of course not.”

“Then let’s go!” She took a few steps, stopped abruptly and turned back to him. “I’m Rey, by the way.” She extended her small, slim hand to him.

“Ben,” he introduced himself, giving it a firm squeeze, the back of his mind admiring how small her hand looked in his.

“Well, then, Ben, lead the way!”

***

They went to a bar not far from the mall, which was surprisingly full, given that it was Christmas Eve.

Ben discovered Rey had lovely dimples when she smiled, and she smiled a lot, which suited her somewhat bubbly personality. She was just finishing her graduate engineering degree, considered her friends her family, loved Christmas and kids, but found the elf job exhausting, because of the little buggers’ parents behaviour. That she considered _“Africa”_ by Toto an ideal Christmas song ( _Listen, it’s perfectly logical: the wet season in Africa is in December, hence it’s a Christmas song!_ ), and considered herself as a Hufflepuff and a hobbit ( _but, you know, more on the Took side_ ). He also discovered that every moment he spent with her made him wish the night would never end.

Rey discovered that Ben had dry, sarcastic, but not mean, sense of humour and really endearing smile. He was more of a listener than a speaker, but when he spoke, he had interesting things to say (not to mention the things his voice did to her). That he thought identifying with fictional houses and races was silly, but when pressed, he admitted to being a Gryffindor (which was interesting) and having a soft spot for the people of Numenor (which was very suiting). That he secretly loved _“Last Christmas”_ and would never survive Whamageddon, even if he wanted to play. And that she definitely wanted to get to know him better.

Unfortunately, after two hours of far more talking than drinking, Rey felt her fatigue catching up with her, overcoming the adrenaline that filled her body during this unexpectedly pleasant meeting. She considered her chances, biting the inside of her cheek. Finally, she sighed and decided to just go for it.

“Listen, Ben,” she said, not looking at him, just to make it easier for herself, “it’s been really nice, but it’s getting late and I’m kind of tired after work…” She stopped, trying to find words that were suddenly escaping her mind at an alarming rate.

She didn’t see how his face fell at this, eyes filled with sudden disappointment.

“So, I thought, if I’m reading the signals right, what do you think about exchanging numbers and maybe meeting again, after Christmas craze is over?” She looked back at him with hope.

His face was full of wonder, with lips slightly parted in surprise. Rey bit her lips nervously.

“What do you say? I mean, if you survive the confrontation with your scary friend.”

“Yes! Of course. Gladly!” He nervously yanked the phone from his jacket pocket, unlocked it and passed to her. Rey entered her number and quickly called her own, then gave the phone back with a shy smile.

“It was really nice to meet you, Ben. I hope we’ll meet again… soon,” she said when they were leaving the pub.

“Yeah. Me too,” he responded with a wistful undertone in his voice.

“So… goodbye. Merry Christmas, and good luck with your friend!” she said, hugging him and then turned around and marched her way.

Ben stood there and watched her for a moment, not even afraid of facing Phasma over the absence of the porg anymore.

**Author's Note:**

> Yes, I know the existence of Star Wars in the same universe as Modern AU Rey and Ben makes it all... wonky, but just... don't think about it too much. It's a Christmas Miracle [throws glitter at you and runs away]


End file.
